Rochester man arrested in club assault outside Hannaford

ROCHESTER – A Rochester man has been arrested and charged with several counts of assault and criminal threatening after a bizarre scene involving a homemade club in the parking lot of Hannaford supermarket on Milton Road Tuesday morning.

Several people report being assaulted, including a delivery man who was hit in the head by a large bag of popcorn. The incident sent nearby Spaulding High School into lockdown for a brief time.

Arrested was Christopher J. Wentworth, 41, of 82 Chestnut Hill Road, who was charged with four counts of felony second-degree assault, three counts of felony criminal threatening, and one count of simple assault.

The incident unfolded just after 9:30 a.m.

Rochester police responded to a call of a disturbance in the parking lot, possibly a robbery, with the assailant described as a man wearing a black suit and carrying a "crow-bar" type object.

When officers responded, they found Wentworth across the street at the VIP auto parts store.

Police were told that Wentworth approached a man who was sitting in his vehicle and began a verbal confrontation. Police said Wentworth hit the man in the chest with a wooden club, and as the man tried to get back in his vehicle, Wentworth struck him several times in the legs.

Wentworth, according to police, then approached a man unloading a delivery truck at the front of the store and waved the club at him. Police said Wentworth then hit the man in the head with a large bag of popcorn.

Wentworth turned and walked toward two older men who were putting groceries in the trunk of their vehicle and began swinging the wooden club at one of them, according to police. One of the men backed up and fell to the ground, police said. He then went to his car and retrieved his handgun. Wentworth continued to accost the man until another man intervened and chased Wentworth away, police said.

Police said Wentworth tried to barricade himself inside the VIP auto parts store across the street but was forced from the store by employees. That was when police arrived and arrested him.

The first man involved in the incident was taken to Frisbie Memorial Hospital with leg injuries.

Wentworth was held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.